Now that we have settled the 'rich paying their fair share' issue, it is
time to turn attention to the real problem in the federal budget,
spending.

You don't think the tax debate is over? President Obama has gotten the
last tax hike he will ever see, or any other Democrat, for the rest of
his term and their lifetime.

Why?

Because he has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that every time a
Republican in Congress or the White House gives an inch on higher taxes
on anyone, Democrats will not reciprocate with even a centimeter of
spending cuts...

Just take a look at the fiscal cliff deal. 98% of Americans get to keep
the tax cuts George W. Bush 43 and the GOP Congress gave them in
2002/03. They are now permanent thanks to President Obama and a GOP
House.

But the GOP got nothing in return for biting the bullet on making poor
old Warren Buffett get what he said he wanted: 'Higher Taxes on the
Rich!'. No spending cuts. No entitlement reforms. No raising of the
retirement age for SS and Medicare.

In fact, all the GOP and the country got was more of the same: More spending and more debt.

There is not a Republican or conservative in Washington today who will EVER
vote for another tax hike as part of any deal with this President and
this Democratic Senate. They just never give the Republicans what they
really want: political cover to vote for Medicare and Social Security reforms which
everyone with half a brain knows are the largest part of the
entitlement bomb that is driving up cost in the federal budget and the
deficit and the national debt.

So, now that President Obama will be the longest sitting lame duck in
history if he insists on raising taxes further on anyone, what can be
done?

For one thing, the GOP House can start showing the American people what
is really at stake with no budgetary constraint or setting of
priorities:

'Discretionary programs will be steadily eroded until and unless
entitlement programs are reformed and curtailed in growth rates and
expansion.'

It will be like King Solomon forcing the women with the dispute over who
was the 'real mother' to 'make a decision' and make it the right one.
(1 Kings 3:16-28)

We think Speaker Boehner should open up Congress as the Committee of the
Whole every weekday after they have done some other important business
like naming October 26 'National Mule Day' (our very favorite worthless
act of Congress ever in history). He and the Republican leadership
should let each and every representative on a bi-partisan basis offer
spending amendments to reduce discretionary programs up to the same
amount that all the entitlement programs are expected to grow this year.
Unless, of course, Congress decides to do the right thing and reform
and cut entitlement programs in the first place.

Once the entitlement growth dragon is slain, (if ever) primarily in
Medicare and Medicaid, then everyone can go back to protecting their own
part of the discretionary pie just as they have always done under
regular order and the 'normal' committee process (where they will never
be cut again since no one wants to cut someone else's favorite program
for fear that they will want to cut theirs)

The debate would look and sound something like this:

'The gentlelady from North Carolina is recognized.

'I rise to offer an amendment to reduce the funding for research on
blind albino squirrels at the University of Idaho by $250,000, which is
precisely the amount of money being spent on Medicare in the next 23
seconds as we speak on this hallowed floor.

If we are not going to fix what ails us in entitlement spending, then
we have to find those savings by making such tough decisions as not
funding research on these poor blind albino squirrels. Tough times
demand tough decisions and I am ready to make them.

How about you?'

Who in their right mind is going to vote against that amendment with the
glare of C-SPAN cameras capturing their every move? It might not be as
riveting as the debate leading up to the passage of the 13th Amendment
that freed the slaves (you really should see 'Lincoln' before it goes to
Netflix) but, cumulatively, making these spending priority decisions
will be very important to the future health and welfare of our nation
and our children.

One of our more grizzled veteran and denizen of the Washington deep
friends responded when we approached him about this idea with the
following (you know who you are):

'They could talk about selling off specific national parks
(regretting it all the way, of course), but talking about what kind of
revenue could be generated if we allowed Hilton to build a hotel
overlooking Old Faithful or developers to build retirement homes along
the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Since Obama won't let the nation use Yucca Mountain to store nuclear
waste, why not fill it with compacted garbage from New York or LA? They
would pay a fortune to drive it to Nevada, I am sure. Hell, I bet with
some thought we could create a lot of revenue-producing opportunities.'

Indeed. If President Obama and the Democrats won't agree to any
reasonable spending cuts or reforms in entitlements, and since the GOP
has already caved in and let the White House win on the 'tax fairness'
issue by making rich people pay more each year, then the only other way
to get to a balanced budget other than slicing and dicing discretionary
programs with a Veg-o-Matic is to sell off assets or get recurring
cash-flows from naming national monuments like BCS Championship Bowl
Games:

'Climb to the Top of the Chick-Fil-A Washington Monument!'

'Skateboard Around the Priceline.com Jefferson Memorial!'

'Swim Laps in the Reflecting Pool in Front of the Lincoln Memorial--

Sponsored by The New Lincoln--Drive A MKX Today!'

There is a serious proposal in here somewhere, we promise. We think the
time has come to drop the charade that raising taxes will ever balance
this budget, not in the shape it is in today. The Fiscal Cliff tax
hikes will cover perhaps, maybe 6% of the budget shortfall over the next
10 years. If our annual budget deficits had been at the $100 billion or
$60 billion, well, then perhaps the tax hikes would have done the
trick.

But they weren't and haven't been for the past 4 years, now going on 5.
Massive restructuring and reform of Medicaid, Medicare and SS are
necessary unless we want to keep adding on debt until it becomes
unmanageable, especially when (not if) our interest rates return to a
normal level of 5% or more.

It is either reform entitlements or chop the heck out of every
discretionary program you probably like and support for the good it does
in our society in your opinion.

14 comments:

The time for chatter is over. Why tell us all what we already know? Obama=bad. We get it. We do.

No Socialist nation has ever prospered. We are now a Socialist nation. We will fail, as well.

Enough chatter. Enough clever blogging. Enough preaching to the choir. Words will not win the day, and there is absolutely no truth to the idea that the pen is mightier than the sword. The only people who believe that have never taken a pen to a sword fight.

We do indeed deserve what we tolerate. The past twelve, now in the thirteen year proves it

Oh hell, why not just admit it has been going on for years before that. rEpublicans have been the champions of Keynesian deficit spending. Remember the statement 'We're all Keynesians now?". I seem to recall it was a rEpublican that said it. Who was it now, on yes Richard M. Nixon.

And the beats been going on every since. Right Mr. GWB? Oh the hypocrisy of it all.

I do not care about previous presidents as to what I see in the White House today. Shall we simply blame them all, be they a D or an R or even the I's? Sure. We can. We should.

However, no past poor performance from any president, be they with the R or the D after their name, matters to me today, since my focus is on the person in the White House today. Not 10 years ago. Not in 1993. Not in 1980 or even 1977.

Blaming Bush doesn't address the solutions we need to come up with to solve the current president's desire to turn this Nation into a begging whore in the street, spreading her legs for the Chinese and washing the feet of the Islamofascists.

BTW, I'm not saying you yourself are blaming anyone, RNUSA. It's just that for the last four years it has been all about blaming that 'other guy' and not our current Dear Leader, since it is apparent he is Infallible and will always get a free pass.

EVERY program needs to be cut 15% at least! Many need to be abolished completely...the Helium Reserve was created in 1925 to supply intelligence dirigibles in use at the time for reconnaissance purposes....it was eliminated in 1995 as probably the only federal program ever to die of natural causes...and now some yahoo is trying to reinstate it!

Social Security is contributing to the deficit because it is running at a big deficit this year and has for the past 4 years. It is not a fully functioning or paid-for retirement program as many think. It is pure and simple a welfare program where old people get tax money from young people. Despite their need or income or wealth status.

Pardon, but all this talk that the dems won't see another tax increase after this one is the mantra that has been chanted by the fiscal conservatives for the last 30 years, yet Charlie Brown continues to try to kick that football. I don't believe it for a sec and especially with Boner still in charge. I think the GOP will continue to cave as they always have and we haven't seen anything yet as the Obamacare taxes are kicking in with is more tax increases with even more insane spending.

You say if Republicans agree to some tax increases, Democrats won't reciprocate with significant spending cuts. Suppose, however, the cuts were to some military programs and prisons. You rightly say tax increases along, unless they're outrageously large, will not solve the problem. It has to come from programs aimed at helping the needy. Programs to punish evil-doers, i.e. military, prisons, drug prohibtion, are off the table. Very small increases in everyone's taxes plus very small cuts to military and prisons plus small cuts to entitlements and social programs would solve the problems easily. But everyone wants to use the problem to their advantage-- to make the rich pay "their fair share" or to cut these huge entitlements and programs for the needy that we can't afford. It's very hard to get people to give up huge entitlements or to bring our prison population or military down to levels consistent with the rest of the world. So this seems like an intractable problems. Very modest changes across the board make the problems disappear.

CJ: with all due respect, you are way off-base with your diminution of the budget gaps we face. These problems we have on fiscal side can not be washed away with 'very small' changes as you assert.

The fiscal cliff tax hikes 'might' solve 6% of our deficits for the next 10 years...maybe. More like 3%.

that leaves at least 94% of the budget gaps unsolved. 94%. You can't solve that by sprinkling fairy dust all over it and wishing it away as if you were Tinkerbell or something.

Now, if you insist on solving this with 'tax increases', you should have told President Obama to not sign the permanent extension of the middle class tax cuts that he did last month. Had he not signed it, $4 trillion of higher tax revenues would have flowed into Washington in the next decade thus obviating close to 50% of the budget deficits over the same time period.

Now THAT would have made a big dent in our deficit/debt situation going forward.

There is nothing 'small' that can be done at this stage to bring us back to balance. Big cuts, big reforms and big taxes would do it...not tiny ones

"When compiling sharp conservative thoughts and takes for my Morning Jolt newsletter late at night and early in the morning, I find myself coming back to Left Coast Rebel again and again." -Jim Geraghty, National Review"Hey Tim, I appreciate the kind email and the plug on your site. It’s rare that my first feedback isn’t hate mail from a disgruntled statist! You carry on too – we’ve got our work cut out for us." -Tad DeHaven, Cato Institute"Thanks so much for all YOU do for liberty and individual rights. I appreciate your strong voice for capitalism. We're changing the culture -- keep it up!" -Jonathan Hoenig, Fox News"Congrats Tim. You have arrived." -GatewayPundit"Before we sell California to China or go Lex Luther on the San Andreas Fault, let's be sure to save the Left Coast Rebel." -Barack Obama's Cousin, Milton R. Wolf, M.D.

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